A new online dating brand is facing an unlikely predicament: It's entirely too popular with women.

MyLovelyParent, a site on which adult children help their single parents find companionship, launched in October to such positive reviews that it led to a flurry of registrations worldwide. While that'd normally be good news for a fledgling business, the ratio of women to men is about 4:1 - a problematic phenomenon for a matchmaking site.

Although demographics might divine this dating dilemma - in Canada, for instance, seven in 10 male seniors live as part of a couple, compared to just four in 10 female seniors - site founder Matt Connolly believes life expectancy isn't the whole story.

"I think it has much more to do with confidence," says Connolly. "The older we get as chaps, the less confident we become in meeting people. As a result, the fear of failure builds up and we eventually stop trying."

Enter Older Gent Academy, an initiative launching in January that aims to awaken male seniors' inner Clark Gable. The first 1,000 dads registered get free membership on MyLovelyParent - for as long as it takes to find someone special - and four times a year, one of them will receive complementary coaching and a bespoke tailored suit.

Connolly, a 35-year-old entrepreneur from the U.K., confesses his reason for wanting more men on the site is somewhat self-serving.

"It sounds like a PR cliche, but my mum literally said to me, 'Can you help me find my knight in shining armour?'" he recalls. "It was the lightbulb moment that made me realize there was probably a whole stack of other people who'd love for their single parent to have companionship."

Connolly's first order of business in creating MyLovelyParent was simplicity, as he'd found competitor sites to be either too complex or too ethically murky to recommend to his mother.

A single parent must be signed-up by their adult child, who initiates the process by writing their mom or dad's profile. The parent is then invited to finish that profile and peruse the site, with potential love connections flagged to them by their child (the amount of control the child has over the process from that point is determined by the parent).

Jane Whaley, a 59-year-old member from Oregon, says reading her 19-year-old son's description of her was "truly priceless."

"I am so moved by his testimonial about me, which would not have happened without (the site)," says Whaley. "Even if I don't meet a mate, it means so much to hear my son's view of me."

Despite limited marketing outside the U.K., MyLovelyParent has seen roughly 800 profiles created in seven countries, including Canada. Connolly is hopeful those numbers will continue to grow after Older Gent Academy launches in the New Year.

"There are already hundreds of messages being exchanged between our members, which just melts my heart. That says to me that it works," says Connolly, whose background is in digital innovation. "I want to transform people's lives for the better."

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.